Ethereum co-founder Vitalik Buterin has shifted his stance on the value proposition of ETH, moving away from the 'ultrasound money' narrative. He now argues that the network's value is rooted in stability, decentralization, and security rather than the burning of transaction fees.
The 'ultrasound money' concept emerged in 2021 when Ethereum began burning a portion of transaction fees to reduce supply. Buterin stated that this mechanism never functioned as a true price floor, as much of the activity was driven by internal crypto uses like lending and NFT trading.
Connor Howe, CEO of Enso, noted that the expansion of layer-2 networks has further diminished the fee-burning argument, as transaction costs on these layers are minimal. He added that optimizing for higher fees to support a market capitalization of approximately $270 billion would contradict Ethereum's core goal of decentralization.
Ethlabs founding members Binji Pande and Julian Ma support this shift, positioning ETH as a future-proof store of value. They cite Ethereum's resistance to censorship, its distribution, and its ongoing investments in security against quantum and AI-driven threats as key advantages.
Pande highlighted that the Ethereum Foundation holds less than 0.2% of the total ETH supply, with the asset having been traded for 11 years. He argued that newer assets lack the verifiable distribution and long-term security infrastructure that Ethereum has established.
